


Anniversary

by wonderlandiscrumbling



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Moving On, death anniversary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-03-18
Packaged: 2019-04-04 00:31:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14008209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wonderlandiscrumbling/pseuds/wonderlandiscrumbling
Summary: Victor has a habit of shutting down and shutting others out during a certain time of the year.





	Anniversary

It was four in the morning. Oswald covered his face with his hands cursing, the house was practically vibrating due to the volume of the music blaring a floor below his bedroom. All attempts at sleep had failed repeatedly, each time the house fell silent giving him peace, that peace was drowned only a couple minutes later. Having reached his limit on patience he climbed out of bed, he grabbed his cane, and made his way downstairs no longer feeling exhausted, just feeling angry. By the time he reached the freezer his left eye was twitching, he slammed his cane against the door repeatedly.

“Victor, open this door!” 

He continued hitting his cane, teeth gritted. He only stopped when the door slammed open. Victor stood shirtless, he stared down at him with haunting blue eyes that glowed like a radioactive chemical. Oswald shoved past him marching into the room, he headed straight for the stereo glaring at it. He picked it up and threw it across the room smiling to himself as he watched it slam against the wall, breaking. He closed his eyes breathing out a sigh of relief at the renewed and more permanent silence. 

“Why did you do that, that was mine.” Victor quickly approached him, he grabbed his shoulder roughly turning him to face him.

Oswald glared up at him, shrugging his hand off him. “It’s four in the morning Victor, I need sleep. I admit I don’t get that much of it, but I’d like at least one single hour, that’s all I’m asking for. Instead I spend my night having to deal with you blaring your god awful music.”

“You could have asked me to turn it down then, you didn’t have to do that.”

He rolled his eyes in response. “Of course, I should have just asked you, because you’ve been so social for the past week. I’m amazed you even opened the door this time, every other time I’ve tried to even so much as say hi to you, and you’ve been a complete jackass.” He yelled glaring up at him.

His anger felt ineffective when he realized the difference in height and stature, he wished he was capable of wearing platforms without hurting himself. 

“I’ve been dealing with something, so excuse me if I don’t feel like dealing with you lately.” He responded as he shoved past him making his way over towards the broken stereo.

Victor knelt, he picked up the damaged object, the back cracked, and wires exposed. He’d sigh knowing it would be better to just replace it instead of trying to repair it, the CD he found was cracked in half. He got up and moved to his desk sitting the broken objects near his lab equipment, he ignored the failed experiments not wanting to think about his never ending list of failures.

“Deal with me, is that what you consider this?”

He sighed heavily running his fingers back through stark white hair. “You know that isn’t what I meant.”

Oswald grabbed his wrist pulling him towards him, he released him as the cold of his skin started to burn his hand. Victor watched as the other man held his hand against his chest, he could see the palm reddening just from that short amount of contact, he averted his eyes feeling guilty.

“Just leave me alone.” He quietly pleaded feeling too tired to deal with any of this.

“I’m not leaving you alone, something is obviously bothering you, and I want to know what it is.” He said more sincerely.

Victor looked at him, “You really don’t have a clue, do you?”

Oswald shook his head, he rubbed at his injured hand flexing his fingers. He watched as Victor moved to the nightstand by his bed, he opened the drawer pulling something out that Oswald couldn’t quite see. Victor walked back over to him, he held out his hand showing him the object he held; a necklace, a simple one that to his eye looked more on the cheap side, but he could tell it held emotional value. He looked from the heart shaped pendant to Victor, recognized the sadness in his eyes. 

“Victor, I’m-I’m sorry.” Cautiously he reached out placing his hand against his cheek, fingers brushing against soft icy cold skin. Victor pulled away from him taking a step back, Oswald let his hand drop back to his side hating the feeling of rejection.

“She died today, she died because of me.” He spoke softly as he looked down at the necklace. “I should have been smarter, I should have…I should have just listened to her. She told me that she just wanted to enjoy the time that we’d had left together, she had another month, maybe even longer. I could have had that time with her, but I was scared. I hated seeing her sick, I hated thinking about how much time we were losing and knowing I’d have to bury her soon. I just wanted to save her.” He closed his eyes tightly, he held the necklace up against his lips pressing a kiss against the cool metal. 

“It wasn’t your fault.” 

Victor opened his eyes to look at him, feeling nearly offended by the softly spoken words. “She’s dead, because of my mistakes, how can you say it isn’t my fault?”

“You tried to save her, she wouldn’t fault you for that.” He laughed shaking his head. “I spent a full year blaming myself for my mother dying, it was in a sense my fault, but I didn’t do it. You can’t blame yourself for doing everything you could to try and save somebody that you loved, we’ve all lost people who were dear to us. I know it’s hard, but she wouldn’t want you locked up in a freezer blaming yourself. She’d want you to be happy.” 

Victor stared at him processing his words, he looked back down at the necklace. 

Oswald approached him again, he placed a hand against his shoulder ignoring the biting cold. “I know it’s not the cure you wanted, but it’d be nice if you took your injections and we could go sit and talk somewhere less freezing.” He hopefully suggested.

He nodded, wordlessly he turned away from him and returned the necklace to its spot in the drawer. He moved to his medicine cabinet retrieving the bottle containing his temporary cure. He knew he should be proud of the medication, should be proud that even if it only lasted twelve hours, it was twelve hours more than he had before last month. At first, he’d been proud of himself, had been happy that he could spend more time with Oswald, and get the chance to hold him. The closer time got to the anniversary of Nora’s death then the more guilt and shame made him loathe even that temporary freedom, made him feel he deserved the cold and the isolation.

Once he’d injected himself he returned to Oswald’s side, he gently took hold of his hand leading him out of the freezer. The two made their way to the sitting room where they took their place on the sofa near the fireplace. He fought back the guilt he felt having Oswald curled up against his side, head resting against his chest, but he knew Nora would be happy for him, that she would approve of him moving on and finding somebody who was willing to work with him and help him get better. He decided for once he was willing to start moving on with his life.


End file.
